Inverurie named Scotland’s Town of the Year amid boost in high street footfall

Inverurie has been named Scotland’s Town of the Year amid a boost in high street footfall.

The Aberdeenshire town beat off competition from East Kilbride, Falkirk, Fort William and Kirkwall to be crowned at the Scotland Loves Local awards.

The prize recognises towns which demonstrate a clear vision, strong partnership working and tangible progress towards creating vibrant and sustainable places.

Inverurie’s success is said to reflect years of collective effort between businesses, community organisations, volunteers, residents and public-sector partners.

The town is enjoying high levels of business occupancy, with vacancy sitting at around 4% of units, and an increase in town centre footfall.

Collaboration between organisations in the town has seen the development of an annual events programme which “reaches well beyond the town itself”, including a Christmas Festival, Taste of Garioch food festival, and Garioch Pipe Band Championships.

Derek Ritchie, Business Improvement District (BID) manager at We Are Inverurie, said: “To see Inverurie named Scotland’s Town of the Year is incredibly special, but this is an award for the whole town.

“There is no single project, organisation or person responsible for what Inverurie has become.

“It comes from businesses investing here, people choosing to shop and spend time here, volunteers giving enormous amounts of their time and organisations being willing to work together rather than separately.”

Derek also enjoyed personal success at the event as he was named High Street Hero – an award recognising those who go above and beyond to strengthen their town centres and local economies.

Along side his BID role, Derek also serves as a trustee of Evolving Inverurie and Inverurie Events, helping to connect the town’s business community with major events, community development projects and wider opportunities.

He added: “We have an incredible mix of long-established independents, newer businesses and national names, events which now attract thousands of people and community groups constantly pushing new ideas forward.

“The role of Inverurie BID has always been to promote, support and champion the businesses that make Inverurie so special, while helping bring people and organisations together around opportunities which benefit the town.

“To personally receive a High Street Hero Award in the same year is a real honour.

“I’m fortunate to work alongside so many people who care passionately about Inverurie, whether through BID or the many other organisations and businesses contributing to the town.

“This recognition is really about that collective effort; be it the imminent delivery of our much-needed town centre CCTV system or other projects in the works, there is still a huge amount we want to achieve.”